Tour de France under shadow of Armstrong doping probe

Associated Press

July 5, 2012

SAINT-QUENTIN, France - The Tour de France is shadowed again by Lance Armstrong and doping.

The subject returned with a vengeance to cycling's greatest race Thursday, and caught in the turmoil were four riders and a team manager who years ago helped Armstrong on the way to his seven Tour titles.

All this on a day when Germany's Andre Greipel won the fifth stage - his second in a row - in a sprint after the 122-mile trek from Rouen to Saint-Quentin, north of Paris. Fabian Cancellara kept the race lead for a sixth straight day.

The ride got off to a bumpy start after a Dutch newspaper reported the former Armstrong teammates cut a deal with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency for their testimony in a doping case against him.

Daily De Telegraaf said USADA had given six-month bans to Jonathan Vaughters, George Hincapie, Levi Leipheimer, David Zabriskie and Christian Vande Velde.

Later, the New York Times reported that four of those riders - all but Vaughters - would testify in the case.

Vaughters, now a team director at the Garmin-Sharp team, called the Dutch report "completely untrue." The others declined to comment, though Hincapie said his thoughts were with Armstrong.

"I'm sad he is going through this," said Hincapie, the only rider to be on all of Armstrong's Tour-winning teams. "He's done so many things for the sport."

The revelations amount to a new twist in a drama over cycling's greatest star - this time putting some of his former friends and teammates on the spot.

USADA refused to confirm the report, while cautioning in a statement that the five named could be subject to "unnecessary scrutiny, threats and intimidation."

As is often the case, the riders are likely to put their heads down and hope that the affair blows over in time. Vande Velde and Zabriskie rode away from questions about the issue before Thursday's start.

But it's an additional complication in a sport that's already physically and mentally grueling. Vande Velde, who crashed this week, and Zabriskie want to help teammate Ryder Hesjedal win the Tour. Leipheimer, leader of the Omega Pharma QuickStep team, has his own victory hopes.

Armstrong - who has denied doping - reiterated his charge that USADA was looking for a "vendetta" against him.

Cancellara worried that Armstrong's case might linger over the sport.

"For cycling this is not good," he said. "That makes me sad. We have to deal with that, and I hope it's not going to take three or four years."

Garmin, a team that has been vocal in its efforts to crack down on doping, finds itself in the controversy, with three of the five people cited.

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The team got more bad news when sprinter Tyler Farrar had a fourth crash. Farrar straggled across the line, blood streaming down his right elbow and knee. He then stormed into the bus of the Argos-Shimano team, looking for sprinter Tom Veelers.

Farrar shouted, "You don't do that to someone!"

Farrar counted himself "lucky" to avoid a spill two days in a row. This time, he overtook three breakaway riders.

The top standings didn't change. Bradley Wiggins, the leader of Team Sky, was second overall, seven seconds behind Cancellara. Cadel Evans of Australia, the defending champion, was seventh.